Khan retired from cricket in 1992 as one of Pakistan's most successful players. In total he made 3,807 runs and took 362 wickets in Test cricket, and is one of eight world cricketers to have achieved an 'All-rounder's Triple' in Test matches.[8] He was later, in 2010, inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame. In 1991, he launched a fundraising campaign to set up a cancer hospital in memory of his mother. He raised $25 million to set up the first hospital in Lahore in 1994, and later in 2015 a second hospital in Peshawar.[9] Khan remains a prominent philanthropist and commenter, and served as the chancellor of Bradford University between 2005 and 2014 and was the recipient of an honorary fellowship by the Royal College of Physicians in 2012.[10][11]

Family and early life

Khan was born in Lahore on 5 October 1952.[1] Some reports suggest he was born 25 November 1952.[17][18][19][20] It was reported that 25th November was wrongly mentioned by Pakistan Cricket Board officials on his passport.[1] The only son of Ikramullah Khan Niazi, a civil engineer, and his wife Shaukat Khanum.[21]Long settled in Mianwali in northwestern Punjab, his paternal family are of Pashtun ethnicity and belong to the Niazi tribe.[22][23] Khan's mother hailed from the Pashtun tribe of Burki, which had produced several successful cricketers in Pakistan's history,[21] including his cousins Javed Burki and Majid Khan.[22] Maternally, Khan is also a descendant of the Sufi warrior-poet and inventor of the Pashto alphabet, Pir Roshan, who hailed from his maternal family's ancestral Kaniguram town located in South Waziristan in the tribal areas of northwest Pakistan.[24]

Rumours circulated that the couple's marriage was in crisis. Jemima denied the rumours by publishing an advertisement in Pakistani newspapers.[28] On 22 June 2004, it was announced that the couple had divorced, ending the nine-year marriage because it was "difficult for Jemima to adapt to life in Pakistan".[29][30] Khan resides in his sprawling farmhouse at Bani Gala.[31] In November 2009, Khan underwent emergency surgery at Lahore's Shaukat Khanum Cancer Hospital to remove an obstruction in his small intestine.[32] In January 2015 Khan married British-Pakistani journalist Reham Khan in a private Nikah ceremony at his residence in Islamabad.[33][34][35][36] On 22 October 2015 they announced their intention to file for divorce.[37]

Cricket career

Khan made a lackluster first-class cricket debut at the age of sixteen in Lahore. By the start of the 1970s, he was playing for his home teams of Lahore A (1969–70), Lahore B (1969–70), Lahore Greens (1970–71) and, eventually, Lahore (1970–71).[38] Khan was part of University of Oxford's Blues Cricket team during the 1973–1975 seasons.[26] At Worcestershire, where he played county cricket from 1971 to 1976, he was regarded as only an average medium-pace bowler. During this decade, other teams represented by Khan included Dawood Industries (1975–1976) and Pakistan International Airlines (1975–1976 to 1980–1981). From 1983 to 1988, he played for Sussex.[8]

As a fast bowler, Khan reached the peak of his powers in 1982. In 9 Tests, he got 62 wickets at 13.29 each, the lowest average of any bowler in Test history with at least 50 wickets in a calendar year.[40] In January 1983, playing against India, he attained a Test bowling rating of 922 points. Although calculated retrospectively (ICC player ratings did not exist at the time), Khan's form and performance during this period ranks third in the ICC's All-Time Test Bowling Rankings.[41]

Khan achieved the all-rounder's triple (securing 3000 runs and 300 wickets) in 75 Tests, the second fastest record behind Ian Botham's 72. He is also established as having the second highest all-time batting average of 61.86 for a Test batsman playing at position 6 of the batting order.[42] He played his last Test match for Pakistan in January 1992, against Sri Lanka at Faisalabad. Khan retired permanently from cricket six months after his last ODI, the historic 1992 World Cup final against England in Melbourne, Australia.[43] He ended his career with 88 Test matches, 126 innings and scored 3807 runs at an average of 37.69, including six centuries and 18 fifties. His highest score was 136 runs. As a bowler, he took 362 wickets in Test cricket, which made him the first Pakistani and world's fourth bowler to do so.[8] In ODIs, he played 175 matches and scored 3709 runs at an average of 33.41. His highest score remains 102 not out. His best ODI bowling is documented at 6 wickets for 14 runs.He holds the record for the best bowling figures by any bowler in an ODI innings in a losing cause(6–14).[44]

Captaincy

At the height of his career, in 1982, the thirty-year-old Khan took over the captaincy of the Pakistan cricket team from Javed Miandad.[45] As a captain, Khan played 48 Test matches, out of which 14 were won by Pakistan, 8 lost and the rest of 26 were drawn. He also played 139 ODIs, winning 77, losing 57 and ending one in a tie.[8]

In the team's second match, Khan led them to their first Test win on English soil for 28 years at Lord's.[46] Khan's first year as captain was the peak of his legacy as a fast bowler as well as an all-rounder. He recorded the best Test bowling of his career while taking 8 wickets for 58 runs against Sri Lanka at Lahore in 1981–1982.[8] He also topped both the bowling and batting averages against England in three Test series in 1982, taking 21 wickets and averaging 56 with the bat. Later the same year, he put up a highly acknowledged performance in a home series against the formidable Indian team by taking 40 wickets in six Tests at an average of 13.95. By the end of this series in 1982–1983, Khan had taken 88 wickets in 13 Test matches over a period of one year as captain.[38] This same Test series against India, however, also resulted in a stress fracture in his shin that kept him out of cricket for more than two years. An experimental treatment funded by the Pakistani government helped him recover by the end of 1984 and he made a successful comeback to international cricket in the latter part of the 1984–1985 season.[8]

In India in 1987, Khan led Pakistan in its first-ever Test series win and this was followed by Pakistan's first series victory in England during the same year.[46] During the 1980s, his team also recorded three creditable draws against the West Indies. India and Pakistan co-hosted the 1987 World Cup, but neither ventured beyond the semi-finals. Khan retired from international cricket at the end of the World Cup. In 1988, he was asked to return to the captaincy by the president of Pakistan, General Zia-Ul-Haq, and on 18 January, he announced his decision to rejoin the team.[8] Soon after returning to the captaincy, Khan led Pakistan to another winning tour in the West Indies, which he has recounted as "the last time I really bowled well".[22] He was declared Man of the Series against West Indies in 1988 when he took 23 wickets in 3 Tests.[8] Khan's career-high as a captain and cricketer came when he led Pakistan to victory in the 1992 Cricket World Cup. Playing with a brittle batting line-up, Khan promoted himself as a batsman to play in the top order along with Javed Miandad, but his contribution as a bowler was minimal. At the age of 39, Khan took the winning last wicket himself.[38]

Post-retirement

In 1994, Khan had admitted that, during Test matches, he "occasionally scratched the side of the ball and lifted the seam." He had also added, "Only once did I use an object. When Sussex were playing Hampshire in 1981 the ball was not deviating at all. I got the 12th man to bring out a bottle top and it started to move around a lot."[47] In 1996, Khan successfully defended himself in a libel action brought forth by former English captain and all-rounder Ian Botham and batsman Allan Lamb over comments they alleged were made by Khan in two articles about the above-mentioned ball-tampering and another article published in an Indian magazine, India Today. They claimed that, in the latter publication, Khan had called the two cricketers "racist, ill-educated and lacking in class." Khan protested that he had been misquoted, saying that he was defending himself after having admitted that he tampered with a ball in a county match 18 years ago.[48] Khan won the libel case, which the judge labelled a "complete exercise in futility", with a 10–2 majority decision by the jury.[48]

Since retiring, Khan has written opinion pieces on cricket for various British and Asian newspapers, especially regarding the Pakistani national team. His contributions have been published in India's Outlook magazine,[49] the Guardian,[50] the Independent, and the Telegraph. Khan also sometimes appears as a cricket commentator on Asian and British sports networks, including BBC Urdu[51] and the Star TV network.[52] In 2004, when the Indian cricket team toured Pakistan after 14 years, he was a commentator on TEN Sports' special live show, Straight Drive,[53] while he was also a columnist for sify.com for the 2005 India-Pakistan Test series. He has provided analysis for every cricket World Cup since 1992, which includes providing match summaries for the BBC during the 1999 World Cup.[54] He holds as a captain the world record for taking most wickets, best bowling strike rate and best bowling average in Test,[55][56] and best bowling figures (8 wickets for 60 runs) in a Test innings,[57] and also most five-wicket hauls (6) in a Test innings in wins.[58]

Philanthropy

During the 1990s, Khan also served as UNICEF's Special Representative for Sports[65] and promoted health and immunisation programmes in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Thailand.[66] While in London, he also works with the Lord's Taverners, a cricket charity.[9] Khan focused his efforts solely on social work. By 1991, he had founded the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust, a charity organisation bearing the name of his mother, Mrs. Shaukat Khanum. As the Trust's maiden endeavour, Khan established Pakistan's first and only cancer hospital, constructed using donations and funds exceeding $25 million, raised by Khan from all over the world.[9][67]

On 27 April 2008, Khan established a technical college in the Mianwali District called Namal College. It was built by the Mianwali Development Trust (MDT), and is an associate college of the University of Bradford in December 2005.[68][69] Imran Khan Foundation is another welfare work, which aims to assist needy people all over Pakistan. It has provided help to flood victims in Pakistan. Buksh Foundation has partnered with the Imran Khan Foundation to light up villages in Dera Ghazi Khan, Mianwali and Dera Ismail Khan under the project 'Lighting a Million Lives'. The campaign will establish several Solar Charging Stations in the selected off-grid villages and will provide villagers with solar lanterns, which can be regularly charged at the solar-charging stations.[70][71]

Politics

Initial era (1996–2013)

Khan tearing his nomination paper for National Assembly at a press conference, Khan boycotted his 2008 elections.

Khan supported General Pervez Musharraf's military coup in 1999,[75] believing Musharraf would "end corruption, clear out the political mafias".[76] According to Khan, he was Musharraf's choice for prime minister in 2002 but turned down the offer.[77] The 2002 Pakistani general election in October across 272 constituencies, Khan anticipated in the elections and was prepared to form a coalition if his party did not get a majority of the vote.[78] He was elected from Mianwali.[79] He has also served as a part of the Standing Committees on Kashmir and Public Accounts.[80] On 6 May 2005, Khan was mentioned in The New Yorker as being the "most directly responsible" for drawing attention in the Muslim world to the Newsweek story about the alleged desecration of the Qur'an in a US military prison at the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba.[81] In June 2007, Khan faced political opponents in and outside the parliament.[82]

On 2 October 2007, as part of the All Parties Democratic Movement, Khan joined 85 other MPs to resign from Parliament in protest of the presidential election scheduled for 6 October, which general Musharraf was contesting without resigning as army chief.[13] On 3 November 2007, Khan was put under house arrest, after president Musharraf declared a state of emergency in Pakistan. Later Khan escaped and went into hiding.[83] He eventually came out of hiding on 14 November to join a student protest at the University of the Punjab.[84] At the rally, Khan was captured by activists from the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami and roughly treated.[85]

On 30 October 2011, Khan addressed more than 100,000 supporters in Lahore, challenging the policies of the government, calling that new change a "tsunami" against the ruling parties,[86] Another successful public gathering of hundreds of thousands of supporters was held in Karachi on 25 December 2011.[87] Since then Khan has become a real threat to the ruling parties and a future political prospect in Pakistan. According to the International Republican Institute's (IRI's) survey, Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) tops the list of popular parties in Pakistan both at the national and provincial level.[88][89]

Khan ended the campaign by addressing a rally of supporters in Islamabad via a video link while lying on a bed at a hospital in Lahore.[124] According to the last survey before the elections by The Herald showed 24.98 percent of voters nationally planned to vote for his party, just a whisker behind former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N).[125][126] On 7 May, just four days before the elections, Khan was rushed to Shaukat Khanum hospital in Lahore after he tumbled from a forklift at the edge of a stage and fell headfirst to the ground.[127][128] Pakistan's 2013 elections were held on 11 May 2013 throughout the country. The elections resulted in a clear majority of Pakistan Muslim League.[129][130] Khan's PTI emerged as the second largest party by popular vote nationally, in Karachi[131][132] Khan's party PTI won 30 directly elected parliamentary seats.[133]

In opposition

Khan led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf became the opposition party in Punjab and Sindh. Khan became the parliamentary leader of his party.[134][135] On 31 July 2013 Khan was issued a contempt of court notice for allegedly criticising the superior judiciary,[136] and his use of the word shameful for the judiciary. The notice was discharged after Khan submitted before the Supreme Court that he criticised the lower judiciary for their actions during the May 2013 general election while those judicial officers were working as returning officers.[137] Khan's party swooped the militancy-hit northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and has formed the provincial government.[138][139] PTI-led Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government presented a balanced, tax-free budget for the fiscal year 2013–14.[140]

On 13 November 2013, Imran Khan, being party leader, ordered Pervez Khattak to dismiss ministers of Qaumi Watan Party who were allegedly involved in corruption. Bakht Baidar and Ibrar Hussan Kamoli of Qaumi Watan Party, ministers for Manpower & Industry and Forest & Environment respectively, were dismissed.[141] Khan ordered Chief Minister KPK to end the alliance with Qaumi Watan Party. Chief Minister KPK also dismissed Minister for Communication and Works of PTI "Yousuf Ayub" due to a fake degree.[142]

One year after elections, on 11 May 2014, Khan alleged that 2013 general elections were rigged in favour of the ruling Pakistan Muslim Leaque.[143] On 14 August 2014, Imran Khan led a rally of supporters from Lahore to Islamabad, promising Nawaz Sharif's resignation and investigation into alleged electoral fraud.[144] On its way to the capital Khan's convoy was attacked by stones from Muslim League supporters in Gujranwala; however, there were no fatalities.[145] Khan was reported to be attacked with guns which forced him to travel him in bullet-proof vehicle.[146] On 15 August Khan led protesters entered the capital and a few days later marched into the high-security Red Zone; on 1 September 2014, according to Al Jazeera, attempted to storm Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's official residence, which prompted the outbreak of violence which has resulted in three deaths and more than 595 people injured, including 115 police officers.[147]

By September Khan had entered into a de facto alliance with Canadian-Pakistani cleric Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri; both have aimed to mobilise their supporters for regime change.[148][149] Khan entered into an agreement with Sharif administration to establish a three-member high-powered judicial commission which would be formed under a presidential ordinance. The commission would make its final report public. If the commission finds a country-wide pattern of rigging proved, the prime minister would dissolve the national and provincial assemblies in terms of the articles 58(1) and 112(1) of the Constitution – thereby meaning that the premier would also appoint the caretaker setup in consultation with the leader of opposition and fresh elections would be held.[150]

Ideology

Basing his wider paradigm on the poet-philosopher Muhammad Iqbal and the Iranian writer-sociologist Ali Shariati he came across in his youth,[151] Khan is generally described as a populist.[152] Khan's proclaimed political platform and declarations include: Islamic values, to which he rededicated himself in the 1990s; liberal economics, with the promise of deregulating the economy and creating a welfare state; decreased bureaucracy and the implementation of anti-corruption laws, to create and ensure a clean government; the establishment of an independent judiciary; overhaul of the country's police system; and an anti-militant vision for a democratic Pakistan.[153][52][154][155][156] David Rose described Khan as a threat to the Americans and the feudal lords who have ruled Pakistan for decades.[157]

In August 2012, the Pakistani Taliban issued death threats if he went ahead with his march to their tribal stronghold along the Afghan border to protest US drone attacks, because he calls himself a "liberal" – a term they associate with a lack of religious belief.[167] On 1 October 2012, prior to his plan to address a rally in South Waziristan, senior commanders of Pakistani Taliban said after a meeting headed by the Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud that they now offered Khan security assistance for the rally because of Khan's opposition to drone attacks in Pakistan, reversing their previous stance.[168]

Khan spoke against the forced conversion of the Kalash people under threat from Taliban and labelled it un-Islamic.[169] Khan views the Kashmir issue as a humanitarian issue, as opposed to a territorial dispute between two countries (India and Pakistan). He also proposed secret talks to settle the issue as he thinks the vested interests on both sides will try to subvert them. He ruled out a military solution to the conflict and denied the possibility of a fourth war between India and Pakistan over the disputed mountainous region.[170] Khan visited embassies of Iran and Saudi Arabia and met their head of commissions in Islamabad on 8 January 2015 to understand their stance about the conflict which is engulfing both nations after execution of Sheikh Nimr by Saudi Arabia. He urged the Government of Pakistan to play a positive role to resolve the matter between both countries.[171]

Wealth

Net worth

In 2012, Khan had net worth of ₨22.9 million (US$220,000) which decreased to ₨14 million (US$130,000) in the election year 2013 and then gradually increased to ₨33.3 million (US$320,000) in 2014. In 2015 Khan's assets were valued ₨1.33 billion (US$13 million). As of 2017, his net worth is ₨1.4 billion (US$13 million).[3]

Assets

Khan owns a 300 kanal mansion in Bani Gala, Islamabad worth ₨750 million (US$7.1 million). He has a house in Zaman Park, Lahore worth ₨29 million (US$270,000). Khan has also been an investor, investing more than ₨40 million (US$380,000) in various businesses. He owns furniture of ₨0.6 million (US$5,700) and four goats of ₨0.2 million (US$1,900). However he has no vehicle registered in his name.[172]

Tax

Public image

After the May 2013 elections, Mohammed Hanif writing for The Guardian termed Khan's support as appealing "to the educated middle classes but Pakistan's main problem is that there aren't enough educated urban middle-class citizens in the country".[174]Pankaj Mishra writing for The New York Times in 2012, charactised Khan as a "cogent picture out of his—and Pakistan's—clashing identities" adding that "his identification with the suffering masses and his attacks on his affluent, English-speaking peers have long been mocked in the living rooms of Lahore and Karachi as the hypocritical ravings of “Im the Dim” and “Taliban Khan”—the two favored monikers for him." Mishra concluded with "like all populist politicians, Khan appears to offer something to everyone. Yet the great differences between his constituencies—socially liberal, upper-middle-class Pakistanis and the deeply conservative residents of Pakistan’s tribal areas—seem irreconcilable."[175]

Khan addressing an Interfaith Christmas Dinner in 2014.

On March 18, 2012, Salman Rushdie critiqued Khan after Khan refused to attend the India Today Conference because of Rushdie's attendance citing the “immeasurable hurt” that Rushdie’s writings have caused Muslims around the world. Rushdie, in turn, suggested Khan was a “dictator in waiting.”[176] In 2011, While writing for The Washington Post, Richard Leiby termed Khan as an underdog adding that he "often sounds like a pro-democracy liberal but is well-known for his coziness with conservative Islamist parties."[177]Ayesha Siddiqa, in September 2014, writing for The Express Tribune, claimed that "while we can all sympathise with Khan’s right to change the political tone, it would be worthwhile for him to envision how he would, if he did become the prime minister of this country, put the genie back into the bottle."[178]H. M. Naqvi termed Khan as a "sort of a Ron Paul figure", adding that "there is no taint of corruption and there is his anti-establishment message.”[177]

During the 1970s and 1980s, Khan became known as a socialite and sported a playboy image due to his "non-stop partying" at London nightclubs such as Annabel's and Tramp, though he claims to have hated English pubs and never drank alcohol.[9][22][52][179] He also gained notoriety in London gossip columns for romancing young debutantes such as Susannah Constantine, Lady Liza Campbell and the artist Emma Sergeant.[22] One of these ex-girlfriends, the British heiress Sita White, daughter of Gordon White, Baron White of Hull, became the mother of his alleged lovechild daughter, Tyrian Jade White. A judge in the US ruled him to be the father of Tyrian, but Khan has denied paternity publicly.[180][181] Later in 2007, Election Commission of Pakistan ruled in favour of Khan and dismissed the ex parte judgment of the US court, on grounds that it was neither admissible in evidence before any court or tribunal in Pakistan nor executable against him.[182] About his lifestyle as a bachelor, he has often said that, "I never claim to have led an angelic life."[22]

Declan Walsh in The Guardian newspaper in England in 2005 described Khan as a "miserable politician," observing that, "Khan's ideas and affiliations since entering politics in 1996 have swerved and skidded like a rickshaw in a rainshower... He preaches democracy one day but gives a vote to reactionary mullahs the next."[183] Khan has also been accused by some opponents and critics of hypocrisy and opportunism, including what has been called his life's "playboy to puritan U-turn."[45] Political commentator Najam Sethi, stated that, "A lot of the Imran Khan story is about backtracking on a lot of things he said earlier, which is why this doesn't inspire people."[45] Author Fatima Bhutto has criticised Khan for "incredible coziness not with the military but with dictatorship" as well as some of his political decisions.[184]

In popular culture

In 2010, a Pakistani production house produced a biographical film based on Khan's life, titled Kaptaan: The Making of a Legend. The title, which is Urdu for 'Captain', depicts Khan's captaincy and career with the Pakistan cricket team which led them to victory in the 1992 cricket world cup, as well as events which shaped his life; from being ridiculed in cricket to being labelled a playboy; from the tragic death of his mother to his efforts and endeavours in building the first cancer hospital in Pakistan; from being the first Chancellor of the University of Bradford to the building of Namal University.[185][186]

Controversy

On 1 August 2017, Ayesha Gulalai came forward with allegations of harassment against Khan and claimed that she had been receiving offensive messages from him since October 2013.[187] In an interview, Khan said that he suspected that the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) had used Gulalai for this allegations of harassment against him.[188] Later that Ayesha Gulalai said that she will forgive Khan if he apologises.[189]

In an 2016 TV interview, Imran Khan refused to call Osama Bin Laden a terrorist[190] and compared him to George Washington.[191][192]

On 8 July 2004, Khan was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2004 Asian Jewel Awards in London, for "acting as a figurehead for many international charities and working hard in fund-raising activities."[193]

In December 2012, GlobalPost ranked him third in a list of the top nine world leaders.[199]

In 2016, Dawn reported that Khan biography page on Wikipedia was the 8th most read amongst Pakistani personalities in 2016.[200]

Publications

Khan has published six works of non-fiction, including an autobiography co-written with Patrick Murphy. He periodically writes editorials on cricket and Pakistani politics in several leading Pakistani and British newspapers. It was revealed in 2008 that Khan's second book, Indus Journey: A Personal View of Pakistan, had required heavy editing from the publisher. The publisher Jeremy Lewis revealed in a memoir that when he asked Khan to show his writing for publication, "he handed me a leatherbound notebook or diary containing a few jottings and autobiographical snippets. It took me, at most, five minutes to read them; and that, it soon became apparent, was all we had to go on."[201]

^Encyclopaedia Asiatica, Comprising Indian Subcontinent, Eastern and Southern Asia: H. Jangtang By Edward Balfour Published by Cosmo Publications, 1976 Item notes: v. 4 Original from the University of Michigan Page 188